Sri Lankan Fast Bowlers Lead the Way

Contrary to popular opinion it was the Sri Lankan fast bowlers and not
the spinners that worried the Zimbabwean batsmen at Welegadera
Stadium in Kurunegala today. Despite a fine seventh wicket partnership
of 144 between Andy Blignaut (93) and Daniel Peacock (62), Zimbabwe
are in trouble at the end of the first day of this unofficial Test match,
finishing on 244 for 7.

Indika Gallage and the young Kaushalya Weereratne from Kandy
troubled all the batsmen. Extracting movement off the seam, especially
with the new ball, and surprising the batsmen with occasional lift, they
reduced the Zimbabweans to 51-4 in the morning session. Then when
they returned to the attack in the evening they took the second new ball
and struck again. Zimbabwe having recovered to 235-5 slipped to 244-7
at the close.

Andy Blignaut will be particularly disappointed with himself. Having done
all the hard work and with only three overs remaining in the day, he took
the attack to the Sri Lankan bowlers. Taking 13 off Weereratne's 17th
over he got carried away and was bowled by Gallage whilst trying
another expansive drive. Nevertheless he deserves praise for a fantastic
innings. Positive from the start he hit the ball cleanly and powerfully
throughout. Most importantly he played straight, the majority of his 13
fours and two sixes being hit between cover and wide mid-on.

Coming to the wicket with his team in dire straits at 91-5 he turned
around the innings for the Zimbabweans with the assistance of Daniel
Peacock. Peacock was the more conservative of the two. Slightly open
chested and awkward looking in his stance he worked extremely hard for
his 62 runs, facing 213 balls and occupying the crease for nearly five
hours. Peacock's conservatism did not matter however because of the
positive strokeplay of his partner. Blignaut was never afraid to hit the ball
over the top and did so on numerous occasions. Whilst the pair batted
throughout the afternoon the spinners were made to look pretty ordinary.
Neither of the trio of Bandara, Samaraweera and Herath extracted much
turn from the pitch.

Indeed at the time the Zimbabwean's greatest threat appeared to be their
running between the wickets. Malinga Bandara should have run out Andy
Blignaut just prior to his fifty. Sent back by his partner, Blignaut was well
short of the crease when Bandara hesitated and then fumbled the ball at
backward square. An offence that induced a fearful rollicking from recent
Test cap, Tillekaratne Dilshan, in the gully.

Embarrassingly for Dilshan he missed the next run out just two overs
later. This time fielding at backward square to Daniel Peacock he
fumbled the ball and the batsmen survived. The fielding lapse meant that
Daniel Peacock had been missed twice. Crucially Chamara Silva
dropped him just before lunch in the slips. Possibly a crucial miss in a
game that could well be low scoring due the uneven bounce of this
wicket.

However just when it looked like the honours would be shared at the
close, the impressive Gallage slipped a ball through the defence of
Blignaut. Two balls later Peacock's marathon came to an end when he
too was bowled, this time by Weereratne, who finished the day with 4-
80.

The prized wicket of Blignaut was just reward for Indika Gallage who
bowled splendidly throughout the day, but especially in the morning
session. Removing the unlucky Gavin Rennie (0) with just his second
ball he went on to trouble all the batsmen. The tall fast bowler with a high
action consistently hit the seam and frequently surprised the batsmen
some extra bounce. Neil Ferreira (35) who had held the innings together
in the morning ducked into a bouncer from Gallage and was forced to
change his helmet.

As is often the case the best bowler did not pick up the wickets.
Kaushalya Weereratne picking up three wickets in the morning session,
including the prized wicket of in-form Mark Vermeulen (15). Later on he
had Dion Ebrahim (12) caught behind and Craig Wishart (6) caught in the
gully.

On a pitch that is uneven in bounce and unlikely to get any better,
Zimbabwe can relax tonight knowing that things could have been a lot
worse. At least they have runs on the board and they have some
batsmen to come. Sri Lanka will be kicking themselves for missing
Peacock before lunch. Nevertheless they have an extremely powerful
batting line up, all of whom will be looking forward to a bat against the
Zimbabweans. With Pakistan and South Africa coming here in June the
stakes are high.

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